ABSTRACT.- Agriculture, energy, and the environment are interdependent dimensions essential for agro-ecosystem sustainability. This chapter focuses on biomass carbon (C)-based practices as the primary pathway to develop resilient, regenerative, profitable, and environmentally friendly production systems. It includes case studies on C balance with biomass-C inputs across production systems in South and North America.

ABSTRACT.- Sorghum is the third major rainfed summer crop after maize and soybean in Uruguay. Worldwide this crop is affected by Fusarium spp. that infect and colonize panicles, kernels, peduncles, stalks, and roots, causing yield losses and threatening grain quality. In Uruguay, F. graminearum sensu stricto (F. graminearum s.s.) is the predominant species in grain, followed by F. proliferatum, F. andiyazi, F. fujikuroi, and F. thapsinum, but little is known about these species in the country.

ABSTRACT.- The emerald ash borer (EAB) is an invasive beetle that has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees throughout North America since its arrival. The use of entomopathogenic fungi as part of integrated pest management approaches is considered effective against a wide range of insect pests. The aim of this study was to screen and select locally adapted EAB-associated entomopathogenic fungi with ovicidal effect on EAB eggs under laboratory conditions.

ABSTRACT.- The ability of plant microbial symbionts to enhance hosts ' fitness depends on the abiotic and biotic context, including the presence of co-existing symbionts. We studied how the presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) affects the performance of a host grass associated or not with fungal asexual endophytes, growing either alone or in interaction with a legume hosting nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

ABSTRACT.- Grasslands are often mis-defined, mainly due to the legacy of colonial narratives in several regions, which have described them as deforested, unproductive or wastelands. They have been largely ignored in global conservation and protection policies, leading to increased exploitation. Although there is much accumulated evidence on the ecosystem services that grasslands provide, in Uruguay, this ecosystem is still neglected in parts of society and for most sustainability policies.

ABSTRACT.- Exploitation of compensatory growth (CG) is a widely practised management strategy in beef production, especially under pastoral conditions due to its potential to reduce feed costs. The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of nutritional restriction during backgrounding in Angus steers slaughtered at either similar age and/or similar BW on feed efficiency, body composition, carcass characteristics and meat quality attributes under either a forage or feedlot-based finishing diet.
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ABSTRACT.- Unknown parent groups (UPG) model missing parentships according to breed, year, and pathway of selection. Genetic evaluations need a sensible definition of rules to form UPG to ensure their accurate estimation. With more complex evaluations, systematic rules are needed to form UPG. We propose several methods to ascertain informativity and join consecutive UPG within breed and pathway.

ABSTRACT.- Ramularia leaf spot (RLS), caused by the fungus Ramularia collo-cygni (Rcc), has become a threat to barley production in Argentina and the world, causing grain yield and quality losses. Characteristics of the pathogen such as a long latency period, high evolutionary potential, numerous transposonic regions and the ability to infect alternative hosts facilitate Rcc adaption to environmental changes and/or control measures such as fungicides. RLS is considered a sporadic disease in Argentina and its occurrence is highly dependent on weather conditions.

ABSTRACT.- Cow-calf systems grazing native grasslands must transition toward improved economic performance simultaneously with the conservation and improvement of ecosystem services they provide. We present an innovation model with this objective based on a hierarchical model that links functional relationships between state variables, grazing experiments and its validation, and co-innovation at the farm level.